Common Good

Common Good

Faith and Medicine

Scripture References

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Old Testament

Jeremiah 17:7-18

7 “Blessed is the man who trusts in the LORD, and whose confidence is in the LORD.

8 For he will be as a tree planted by the waters, who spreads out its roots by the river, and will not fear when heat comes, but its leaf will be green, and will not be concerned in the year of drought. It won’t cease from yielding fruit.

9 The heart is deceitful above all things and it is exceedingly corrupt. Who can know it?

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10 “I, the LORD, search the mind. I try the heart, even to give every man according to his ways, according to the fruit of his doings.”

11 As the partridge that sits on eggs which she has not laid, so is he who gets riches, and not by right. In the middle of his days, they will leave him. At his end, he will be a fool.

12 A glorious throne, set on high from the beginning, is the place of our sanctuary.

13 LORD, the hope of Israel, all who forsake you will be disappointed. Those who depart from me will be written in the earth, because they have forsaken the LORD, the spring of living waters.

14 Heal me, O LORD, and I will be healed. Save me, and I will be saved; for you are my praise.

15 Behold, they ask me, “Where is the LORD’s word? Let it be fulfilled now.”

16 As for me, I have not hurried from being a shepherd after you. I haven’t desired the woeful day. You know. That which came out of my lips was before your face.

17 Don’t be a terror to me. You are my refuge in the day of evil.

18 Let them be disappointed who persecute me, but don’t let me be disappointed. Let them be dismayed, but don’t let me be dismayed. Bring on them the day of evil, and destroy them with double destruction.

New Testament

James 5:14-16

14 Is any amongst you sick? Let him call for the elders of the assembly, and let them pray over him, anointing him with oil in the name of the Lord;

15 and the prayer of faith will heal him who is sick, and the Lord will raise him up. If he has committed sins, he will be forgiven.

16 Confess your sins to one another and pray for one another, that you may be healed. The insistent prayer of a righteous person is powerfully effective.

Thought for the Day

Jeremiah does not speak as a detached theologian. He speaks as a man under pressure, pleading: “Heal me, O Lord, and I shall be healed.” He has learned that the deepest danger is not scarcity of information, but misplaced trust. Blessed is the one who trusts in the Lord, he says; like a tree by water, they are not undone by heat or drought.

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James brings that trust into the life of the Church. When someone is sick, let the elders pray; let oil be used as a sign of blessing; let sins be confessed and forgiven; let prayer be offered with faith. This is not a mechanism for control. It is a way of placing the whole person, body and soul, in God’s merciful hands.

Faith and medicine need not be enemies. Trust in the Lord does not despise ordinary means: skills learned slowly, knowledge shared, hands washed, wounds dressed, medicines taken, care coordinated. But neither do we let medicine become a new saviour, or health become a new righteousness.

So we pray without shame, and we seek help without fear. At Christ’s table we come not as impressive patients but as brethren in need. Lord, heal what you will, strengthen what must endure, forgive what is confessed, and teach us to trust you truly.

Prayer Points

Respond
  • Lord, bring healing and comfort to those who are sick; give relief from pain and courage for long roads
  • Strengthen churches to pray with faith and humility; deliver us from superstition, shame, and performative certainty
  • Bless those who practise medicine and those who receive it; make skill a gift, and care a form of love
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  • Where sin, fear, or bitterness are entangled with illness, grant honest confession and deep forgiveness
  • Keep us from making health an idol; teach us to trust you in recovery and in decline
  • Give wise coordination across families, congregations, and services; so that the vulnerable are not left to navigate alone